Aerosol dispensers are commonly used to dispense personal, household, industrial, and medical products, and to provide a low cost, easy to use method of dispensing such products. Typically, aerosol dispensers include a container, which contains a liquid product to be dispensed, such as a cleaner, insecticide, hairspray, paint, deodorant, disinfectant, air freshener, or the like. A propellant is used to discharge the liquid product from the container. The propellant is pressurized and provides a force to expel the liquid product from the container when a user actuates the aerosol dispenser by, for example, pressing an actuator button.
The two main types of propellants used in aerosol dispensers today are liquefied gas propellants, such as hydrocarbon and hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) propellants, and compressed gas propellants, such as compressed carbon dioxide or nitrogen gas. To a lesser extent, chlorofluorocarbon propellants (CFCs) are also used. The use of CFCs is, however, being phased out due to the potentially harmful effects of CFCs on the environment.
In an aerosol dispenser using the liquefied gas-type propellant, the container is loaded with the liquid product and propellant to a pressure approximately equal to, or slightly greater than, the vapor pressure of the propellant. Thus filled, the container still has a certain amount of space that is not occupied by liquid. This space is referred to as the “head space” of the dispenser assembly. Since the container is pressurized to approximately the vapor pressure of the propellant, some of the propellant is dissolved or emulsified in the liquid product. The remainder of the propellant is in the vapor phase and fills the head space. As the product is dispensed, the pressure in the container remains approximately constant as liquid propellant evaporates to replenish discharged vapor. In contrast, compressed gas propellants are present entirely in the vapor phase. That is, no portion of a compressed gas propellant is in the liquid phase. As a result, the pressure within a compressed gas aerosol dispenser assembly decreases as the vapor is dispensed.
A conventional aerosol dispenser is illustrated in FIG. 4, and generally comprises a container (not shown) for holding a liquid product and a propellant, and a valve assembly for selectively dispensing a liquid product from the container. As illustrated in FIG. 4, the valve assembly comprises a mounting cup 106, a mounting gasket 108, a valve body 110, a valve stem 112, a stem gasket 114, an actuator cap 116, and a return spring 118. The valve stem 112, stem gasket 114, and return spring 118 are disposed within the valve body 110 and are movable relative to the valve body 110 to selectively control dispensing of the liquid product. The valve body 110 is affixed to the underside of the mounting cup 106, such that the valve stem 112 extends through, and projects outwardly from, the mounting cup 106. The actuator cap 116 is fitted onto the outwardly projecting portion of the valve stem 112 and is provided with an exit orifice 132. The exit orifice 132 directs the spray of the liquid product into the desired spray pattern. A dip tube 120 is attached to the lower portion of the valve body 110 to supply the liquid product to the valve assembly to be dispensed. In use, the whole valve assembly is sealed to the container about its periphery by mounting gasket 108.
In operation, when the actuator cap 116 is depressed, the valve stem 112 is unseated from the mounting cup 106, which unseals the stem orifice 126 from the stem gasket 114 and allows the liquid product to flow from the container, through the valve stem 112. Flow occurs because propellant forces the liquid product up the dip tube 120 and into the valve body 110 via a body orifice 122. In the valve body 110, the liquid product is mixed with additional propellant supplied to the valve body 110 through a vapor tap 124. The vapor tap 124 introduces additional propellant gas into the valve body 110, in order to help prevent flashing of the liquefied propellant, and to increase the amount of pressure drop across the exit orifice, which has the added benefit of further breaking-up the dispensed particles. From the valve body 110, the product is propelled through a stem orifice 126, out the valve stem 112, and through an exit orifice 132 formed in the actuator cap 116.
S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc. (S.C. Johnson) employs an aerosol valve similar to that shown in FIG. 4 in connection with their line of Glade® aerosol air fresheners. The propellant used to propel the air freshener liquid product from the container is a B-Series liquefied gas propellant having a propellant pressure of 40 psig (B-40), at 70 degrees F. (2.72 atm at 294 K.). “Propellant pressure” refers to the approximate vapor pressure of the propellant, as opposed to “can pressure,” which refers to the initial gauge pressure contained within a full aerosol container. The B-40 propellant is a composition of propane, normal butane, and isobutane. By normal butane it is meant the composition denoted by the chemical formula C4H10, having a linear backbone of carbon. This is in contrast to isobutane, which also has the chemical formula C4H10, but has a non-linear, branched structure of carbon. In order to effectively dispense this air freshener composition, the aerosol dispenser used by S.C. Johnson in connection with their line of Glade® aerosol air fresheners has a stem orifice diameter of 0.025″ (0.635 mm), a vapor tap diameter of 0.020″ (0.508 mm), a body orifice diameter of 0.062″ (1.575 mm), and a dip tube inner diameter of 0.060″ (1.524 mm). This current Glade® aerosol air freshener requires that the B-40 propellant be present in the amount of approximately 29.5% by weight of the contents of the dispenser assembly in order to satisfactorily dispense the air freshener liquid product.
Hydrocarbon propellants, such as B-40, contain Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). The content of VOCs in aerosol air fresheners is regulated by various federal and state regulatory agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and California Air Resource Board (CARB). S.C. Johnson continuously strives to provide environmentally friendly products and regularly produces products that exceed government regulatory standards. It is in this context that we set out to produce an aerosol dispenser assembly having a reduced VOC content.
One way to reduce the VOC content in such aerosols is to reduce the amount of the propellant used to dispense the liquid product. However, we have discovered that a reduction in the propellant content adversely affects the product performance. Specifically, reducing the propellant content in the aerosol air freshener resulted in excessive product remaining in the container after the propellant is depleted (product retention), an increase in the size of particles of the dispensed product (increased particle size), and a reduction in spray rate, particularly as the container nears depletion. For an air freshener dispenser, however, it is desirable to minimize the particle size of a dispensed product, to maximize the dispersion of the particles in the air and to prevent the particles from “raining” or “falling out” of the air. Thus, we set out to develop an aerosol dispenser assembly that can satisfactorily dispense an aerosol product that contains, at most, 25% by weight, of a liquefied gas propellant, while actually improving product performance throughout the life of the dispenser assembly. (As used herein, the “life of the dispenser assembly” is defined in terms of the amount of propellant within the container (i.e., the can pressure), such that the life of the dispenser assembly is the period between when the pressure in the container is at its maximum (100% fill weight) and when the pressure within the container is substantially depleted, i.e., equal to atmospheric pressure. Some amount of liquid product may remain at the end of the life of the dispenser assembly. Also as used herein, all references to pressure are taken at 70° F. (294 K.), unless otherwise noted.)
Consequently, our design method tackled the idea of identifying preferred performance characteristics of a spray dispenser and providing a novel system for calculating design variables/factors of a spray dispenser that achieve the desired performance characteristics. In other words, in developing a preferred aerosol dispenser assembly that achieved the preferred spray attributes with a reduced VOC content, we simultaneously developed a novel method of calculating design variables that can achieve any one of a number of possible performance characteristics without the need for repetitive trial and error. In addition, based on that method, we also were able to design a formula for predicting which combination of design factors would provide a desired performance characteristic.
Given the effect of VOC's on the environment, expected government restrictions on the VOC content through government regulations in the future, and the ever changing desires of customers of such products unrelated to VOC content, our system is useful in developing products having enhancements for future spray dispenser products, aerosol or otherwise.
Our examples focus on aerosol dispensers inasmuch as we are interested in reducing VOC content while optimizing preferred spray attributes, but one of ordinary skill in the art would understand that our methods would also apply to non-aerosol dispensers. Moreover, in addition to being useful in designing dispensers with reduced VOC content, our invention is also useful in designing dispensers with enhanced performance characteristics. In that regard, in non-aerosol dispensers, it is still desired to optimize performance characteristics to please customers and/or to provide a device that is more cost effective or easier to manufacture.
Examples of these performance characteristics include particle size, discharge rate, sound, particle density, obscuration, cone angle, pressure, plume distance, and percent retention. To the extent that these performance characteristics can be optimized the overall efficacy of the aerosol dispensing system can be increased. However, while some performance characteristics may be more important in some applications, those same performance characteristics will be less important in other applications.
One such performance characteristic is particle size. In this regard, smaller particles are more desirable for air deodorizers and the like in which full evaporation of the dispensed particles is desired. One known method of reducing the particle size of a dispensed liquid product is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,583,642 to Crowell et al. (the '642 patent), which is incorporated herein by reference. The '642 patent discloses a spray head that incorporates a “breakup bar” for inducing turbulence in a product/propellant mixture prior to the mixture being discharged from the spray head. Such turbulence contributes to reducing the size of the mixture particles discharged from the spray head.
Of course, one can also imagine a scenario in which larger particles are desirable, or even a scenario in which the size of the particle is of relatively no importance. Instead, it may be desirable to optimize one or more other performance characteristics, including discharge rate, sound, particle density, obscuration, cone angle, pressure, plume distance, and percent retention.
Our invention provides novel methods of achieving these desired performance characteristics, of reducing/controlling VOC content, and of determining attributes of liquids suitable for given dispensers, as will be discussed in more detail below.